San Francisco Design Week is to creatives what Paris Fashion Week is to any fashionista. It’s where designers converge and dive deep into all things design. The best part of Design Week? The open studios (and libations)! Team 300FeetOut ventured through creative studios, mingled with fellow creatives, soaked up some inspiration, hopped on a party bus and let loose in the streets of San Francisco.

Our first stop was the AIGA sponsored SFDW kick-off party held at Airbnb’s new SF headquarters – complete with an awesome DJ, flowing drinks, free schwag, creative vendors armed with goodies and a dance floor. Oh, did we mention their AMAZING digs? The suspended pendant lighting reminiscent of their brand and the 3-story living wall caught our eye.

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Sterling Becker is a long time partner and well-known for their packaging design for clients such as Microsoft, Whole Foods, Nestlé, Peet’s Coffee, Del Monte and more. If you’ve ever purchased a Whole Foods 365 Organic product, you know Sterling Becker already.

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Next up was big boy brand agency, Landor. With plenty of creative out for partiers viewing pleasure, our team walked away inspired most by their DC Comics design work.

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Some things you just don’t plan. So when we saw a party bus parked outside Landor, we were quick to hop on! GE’s Design & Experience Studio partnered with the RVIP to create a roving UX Studio — complete with on-board karaoke, a full bar, and plenty of disco lighting. Let us just add, the drinks were strong. A plus in our book.

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Hopping off the party bus and continuing our studio crawl, we strolled over to MetaDesign. This year we were thrilled to work with the San Francisco Ballet on their 2014 advertising campaign, and MetaDesign were the architects of their logo. If you study the logo, the elements are choreographed as if on a stage, dynamic in nature and true to the ballet art form. Our team mingled and chatted (with more beer in-hand see below).

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It was unanimous — the team’s favourite studio was Rapt. Walls were covered with huge typographic art, chalkboard fun, neon “rawrs”, and an entire room housing some icy art. The #ICYCAPS art included pieces from sign painters and street artists around the world that play off the classic ice capped typography found on ice merchanisers outside mini marts. A chrome Aston Martin parked out front? Another bonus. Minus the chrome perhaps.

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A long time friend and client of 300FeetOut, we ended SF Design Week with a 25th Birthday celebration and open studio visit at FontShop. Working with FontShop on creative campaigns for their annual TYPO San Francisco International Design Conference is always rewarding – and walking into the party seeing our “Contrast board” from the 2013 event was just that. Ending Design Week with cake — perfect.

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